Zakumalawi social networking utility similar to Facebook
Malawi online community has welcomed the launch of Zakumalawi.com a social networking site which allows users to quickly share messages, sharing live radio transmissions, TV online, photos, videos, stories, blogs, forums and photos in a format popularized by Facebook and Twitter.
The social media sharing service which has been rolled out by a Malawian economics student in Russia, Kenneth Mbewe (pictured), also allow users to update their status like they do with Facebook.
“Well, I wanted to come up with a site which is very simple to use, reliable, useful and good looking. With deep respect to the other sites, I find them too tough to use,” said Mbewe an economics student at the third best university in Russia, the Peoples Friendship University.
“On Zakumalawi.com you will find almost everything you need. Blogs, forums, questions + answers, general chat. We have special days where by Malawians can meet and chat in a group online about specific topics, and so far it has gone very well.
“I have just added Radio Yako, and I will add more Malawian stations. I just need to contact the people at the station and discuss terms,” Mbewe told Nyasa Times.
Mbewe has also another social media sharing platform -www.zakwathu.com- a product for sharing Malawian video like YouTube.
“It’s a base of all Malawian videos. I got the videos from YouTube, but I got the idea because a lot of Malawians abroad have been missing out as far as Malawian video world is concerned and they don’t know how to find their favourite videos on YouTube and other different sites, so I decided to collect all the videos and put them on one website,” he told Nyasa Times.
“I will be adding more everyday to make the database bigger. If people would like to post their videos on zakwathu.com, then let them send me the link and I will view and add the video. Soon people will start uploading their own videos there,” said Mbewe.
In a related development, social networking platform designed as a peer-led and skill-building intervention project to tackle issues that affect Malawian youth such as HIV and AIDS, ifeyo.com has been launched by Justin Malewezi Jnr.
“Today, the youth use Internet in most of their daily lives as opposed to other forms of literature tools and as such the Internet could be the best forum to exchange ideas in the fight against HIV and AIDS,” Malewezi was quoted by Zodiak Broadcasting Services.
According to Malewezi Jnr. the launch of the site has been justified by statistics which show that young people in Malawi urban locations spend most of their time on the Internet.
“A lot of students have cell phones which they can use to access the Internet. This gives them an opportunity to interact with friends outside,” he said.
The project is being funded by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to a tune of 3million Malawi Kwacha.
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